"Ew…no, he has cooties…" A young girl laughed, pushing the boy next to her as the reel seemed to snapped the instant the boy was about to retaliate. The faint sound of a scratching video was accompanied by a blank, white screen projected on the curtain of her four post bed. A small tear began to fall down her face just as the door to her dorm room opened.
The curtains of her bed opened at the same time the screen vanished into thin air with the wave of a wand. "Really Chloe?" the voice was faint, and the girl behind the curtains was hearing it with an underwater overtone, drowning in the mist of her memories. It wasn't until a hand grabbed her shoulder that she was pulled above surface, understanding the voice to be addressing her. "Chloe! Come on. It's been over a year. He's not coming back, you know he's busy and..." the voice trailed, her thoughts lingering on the last bit of video clip she had seen. The reality of the matter was that he was gone, on business. He had a calling, and once he succeeded, he was bound to disappear to help bring power to the dominate side. He had no time for her, he was too busy with future plans and didn't want to put her in danger, or at least that's what his last words were. All she had left was the 6 year-old version of him, on a recording she had pulled from her memory.
"What?" Chloe brought herself out of her fantasy world with the struggle to regain her realistic thinking. "I know he's not coming back, ok?" she replied, hearing the banter of Lilly referring to the one boy she was trying hard not to miss.
Lilly remained quite, the silence was a nice welcome away from the fight that may have started between the two. "We're going out tonight. Get dressed. There's a quidditch party at the Shrieking Shack." She stated simply, pulling the curtains open to allow the moon to release its glow upon her bed, before walking out of the dorm, retreating back to the common room, only to wait a few minutes and start her plea to Chloe once again.
Chloe glanced out the window, the moon playing games with her mind, casting shadows on the ground of the students walking towards the Womping Willow. She took a deep breath at the sight, knowing Lilly was right. If she was ever going to get over him she would have to move on. She slowly began to get dressed, her body resisting the change, her heart wanting to retreat back to her bed and drown in her memories.
"Come ooonnnnn Chloe." Lilly cooed, dragging her arm as they snuck across the dark grounds, dodging in and out of view of the castle so they wouldn't be seen out after hours. Chloe could feel the mud beneath her heels, the breeze of outside wind, sweeping under her skirt, warning her of the night's festivities to come.
The Womping Willow stood aside with ease once the knot was pressed, allowing them to begin the passage to the Haunted House in Hogsmeade. As students clad in Yellow and Maroon passed them in the passage, Chloe's emerald attire seemed to be out of place for the party they were attending. It wasn't until they reached the shack that she realized whose quidditch party this was. "Gryffindor?" her voice raised a sense of worry and shock at the same time, looking over at Lilly. Lilly was in the process of waving her wand to make Chloe's clothes turn from a deep green to a deep maroon. "No, we can't be here. It's not safe. You don't know what they have planned tonight…" she trailed her thought a little, being pushed into a crowd of yellow, the music too loud for her to hear.
"Relax and have fun. We're crashing a Gryffindor party." Lilly pushed her into a group dancing on the floor, allowing her to try to pull away as one boy seemed to grab her. "Seamus." She mumbled, recognizing the boy as one of the few half-breeds in the enemy house. She was handed a double shot of fire whiskey, downing it quickly, starting to dance. The warm alcohol engulfed her senses, creating a blurred vision she forgot would make her numb and forget the pain. Once the liquid was gone, she grabbed another shot, and another, hoping the magical concoction would cloud her thoughts and pursue her attempts in moving on.
About a half hour later, Chloe was stumbling on the dance floor, trying to get to a chair so she wouldn't fall over. She saw the outline of Lilly who grabbed her shoulders as she was about to fall. "You were right. They're here. We have to go. NOW." Lilly hissed, knowing if they didn't go, they were going to be killed with the rest of the half-bloods and mudbloods. They. 'They' was the only word Chloe seemed to catch, her stomach fluttering for the first time since he had been gone. They were here. She could see him, if only she could get out.
"I know what you're thinking and we can't. We have to leave." Lilly growled again, practically dragging her back to the entrance in which they came, only to find it was blocked by a figure clad in a dark hood, a silver mask blocking the person's face from clear view. Chloe felt Lilly tighten the grip on her arm upon the sight of the deatheater in front of her. Lilly was silent as the music around them cam to a abrupt stop, the deatheater raised their wand at the two girls in front of them.
It was at this point that Chloe knew the tattoo she had been hiding from her friends for so many years would save her life, but not Lilly's. After all, Lilly was a pureblood, but not involved with the dark arts that Chloe grew up around. It was now Chloe's turn to grab Lilly's arm, raising her right arm towards the outstretched wand of the deatheater. She closed her eyes tightly as Lilly begged her not to touch the person in front of tem. She ignored the plea, pushing her right forearm against the wand, allowing the tattoo to burn through the many layers of spells she had to hide it for her own protection. Once the tattoo burned through, Lilly pulled away from her, about to run, before Chloe stopped her.
"Don't move." Chloe growled to her as another deatheater appeared, grabbing Lilly by the arm. "Yes." She answered the thoughts that were lingering on the deatheaters' minds about Lilly being a pureblood as well. Lilly was already being pulled into the tunnel by a second deatheater as Chloe had time to glance back, seeing the green sparks of light shooting out of the wands of many deatheaters, watching the Gryffindors fall.
Chloe struggled a little, wanting to walk on her own, back into the tunnel by which they came hardly an hour before. "Lilly, just do what they say!" Chloe yelled to her among the wave of dark hoods, before receiving a hard slap across the face to stay silent. As they approached the entrance onto the grounds of Hogwarts, the deatheater holding Lilly released her through the opening. Lilly made a dash towards the castle, making her way to the dungeons and into the safety of the common room which was instructed of her to do.
Chloe, however, was still being held by the same deatheater as before. She knew what was coming next. They could do one of two things to her. They could either keep her there to fight along side them, or because she was a girl, they could choose to use her later to create more deatheaters. However, they would not let her go as they did with Lilly. She had the tattoo that they wanted to see and take advantage of. Chloe saw the deatheaters start to gather around as she watched them speak silently to each other, the grip on her arm tightening, not fighting it. She knew her fate and could only assume what they were going to do with her.
She felt herself start to get pulled towards the castle, before a final deatheater emerged from the crowd, ripping her body away from the previous deatheater like a rag doll. She watched as the first put up a struggle, only to be stopped by the sparkle of a green stream emerging from the second deatheaters wand. She had enough time to see the first deatheater fall t his death, before being dragged once more. She felt herself heading towards the castle, the moon now setting a faint shadow upon the two figures that emerged from the base of the Whomping Willow. Chloe struggled as they began to head towards the Forbidden Forest. "I know what you're going to do! Let me go!" at these words, she was pulled into the darkness, away from the moonlight and was let go next to a tree. She stayed silent, her body tensing as she saw the deatheater come face to face with her. Reaching for her wand, she was able to conjure a spell to see the mask fly away from its owner and into the forest around them. Her mind instantly began to scream once she uncovered the face before her, her wand falling to the ground. The blonde hair was unmistakable, filling her head with memories as the recording she had watched hours before flooded her thoughts.
"Dr-" She breathed, the words barely coming out of her mouth before she was silenced.
"I have an idea. You need to listen to me and it will save your life." He started, the plan unfolding within the darkness of their conversation as an unrecognizable smile consumed Chloe's face.